Hi Bill333, this is a very good post!
"bill333 can you give us a non-mystical, technical explanation for how removing the chassis top of a component would cause those audible differences (or releasing of the capacitor)?"
I have no technical explanations for this, and no interest in finding any. There may be people out there who enjoy observing scientifically unexplained phenomena and constructing theories to fit them, but that's not the hobby I'm engaged in. I'm trying to create great music listening experiences. Simply put, I don't see how having a well explained system is going to give me better sound. OTOH, if you have practical ideas on how to get better sound from my system, I'd be glad to hear them...
"(BTW, I’ve had the top off some of my equipment before - pre-amps etc - for different reasons and...no...it did not change the sound)."
There could be any number of factors involved in your not hearing a change in sound. Without being there to hear for myself, and subsequent experimenting with your system and room, I really can't say what happened. The most likely explanation is that some component or components in your system are closed down to the point that upstream changes can't easily be heard.
But let's get to the point of your post. You're not here to help people get better sound. Having read through your posts on this thread, I can't find a single instance of you doing or saying anything that would help another person improve their system. You're here to cast aspersions on anyone whose methods who don't fit into your mental model of how things work. Let me be clear in saying that my experiences are my own, and are posted here in the hope that others can benefit from them. These are things that have worked for me. If you, or anyone reading this, tries these methods and benefits from them, I am genuinely happy about that. If you choose not to try, that's ok too. But I have no interest in trying to fit my experiences into your dogmatic belief system."
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This is very true and very powerful. It's how I felt about Prof saying he needed to be convinced that things sound different. Prof that's not on anyone but you. I found out this stuff about caps in particular when I was in my early teens. I found out because I did it and watched others do the same thing. Maybe there's a mental need for some to go through the exercises they do, but "walking" is about the actual doing and applying the doing. Some of you guys who are spinning here are never going to enter the hobby that some of us are talking and doing. That's the point of this OP. If you choose not to hear the difference or can only understand it by looking at a chart or screen that's one hobby (and very legit) but that's a different hobby. When you guys start shouting (and most of the time with anger) VooDoo that really only tells the listening world that you haven't reached the level of empirical testing.
BTW the Tunees who have been up here so far are EEs, Doctors, Musicians, Reviewers and heavy duty listening explorers. I don't think any of us would put down another's path to successful listening. I can say this because we believe in the variables of the hobby. Again it's like the OP is saying, there are those that walk and others that talk. The ones that walk are more than happy to help those through the first few steps into the bigger world of tuning the variables, but when someone can't hear the difference between caps, and questions that there is a difference it kind of spoils the desire to jump in to the mental state with them.
Michael Green
www.michaelgreenaudio.net